This economy is hard. People are getting laid off every day. But pharmaceutical giant Pfizer wants to help raise your spirits. Ahem.

Pfizer will provide more than 70 prescription drugs, from Lipitor to Viagra, at no cost to unemployed, uninsured Americans.

People who lost jobs since Jan. 1 and have been on Pfizer drugs for three months or more are eligible.

That will be wonderful news for people who have fallen on hard times, and will provide a real boost to their marketing at Pfizer at the same time.

All jokes aside (really, I promise), one could argue that there’s a great economic incentive to do this. President Obama has already spent over a trillion bucks, and America will collapse in a generation if we don’t start shoring up the coffers once more. Immigration is one way to get more taxpayers, but the problem of illegal Mexican workers almost negates the good being done by legal immigration.

America is one of the only Western countries (I think it’s the only one, but I’d have to double check with Mark Steyn or someone who actually knows about demography) with a sustainable birthrate - and it’s right on the line. If it falls further, we will go the way of Europe, which will not exist as we know it in 50 years. So let’s make sure people are having lots of sex, and we can (maybe) get another generation of dutiful taxpayers to pay for the Obama spending spree.

Oh, I know the downside. If people are struggling economically, and the government is funneling millions into organizations like Planned Parenthood, it will be all too easy for all this Pfizer Pfucking to lead to naught. But the potential remains, and that’s kinda cool. Too bad Pfizer doesn’t make diapers - now that would be encouraging to get for free!

I haven’t completely worked out the details on this yet, but hear me out:

You get sick, maybe a throat infection. Nothing overly serious, but terribly, terribly uncomfortable. Your life is miserable. So you go running to the doctor who prescribes strong antibiotics. You take the antibiotics, the throat infection goes away. Yay. But there are side effects: You get a yeast infection. You gain 5lbs. And the next time you get sick, it’s ten times worse than it was the first time. In fact, your body will no longer react to the same antibiotic, because the problem is now bigger than before. You suffer terribly, for a long time, wishing you had just rode it out the first time.

Ok…

Your bank lends money to deadbeats. The deadbeats don’t pay it back, leading to a financial backlash and low markets. You might lose your job in the weakened economy. You may lose your house. Your life is miserable. So you go running to the government, who prescribes a strong bailout. You approve the bailout, take the money. Yay. But there are side effects: Your taxes go up considerably. It’s a false economy. The bank continues to lend money to deadbeats. There can be no more bailouts because the government is out of money and is in deficit spending. The problem is bigger than before. You suffer terribly, for a long, long time, wishing you had just rode it out the first time.

Ontario is slapping fees on TVs and computers to increase the recycling of electronics in the first phase of a program that will eventually see similar fees apply to nearly all other electronic products.

Today, Environment Minister John Gerretsen is signing a regulation that puts in place a recycling program, including per item fees, for all televisions and computers sold in Ontario. Producers and importers will have to start paying the fees, including $10 for TVs and $2 to $13 for computers, beginning April 1, 2009.

No prob. My computer and TV are less than a year old, so I won’t be replacing them right away. And when I do, I will make sure I do so in Quebec or upstate New York. Probably New york, since their taxes are already considerably lower than what we pay here.

Amazing, the lengths government will go to in order to slow our economy in the name of a socialist ideal.

As always happens during discussions about personal responsibility.

Stacy has come down squarely on the banks in the issue of the U.S. mortgage crisis.

Being self-employed for many years; having employee after employee after employee after employee through these years . . . things happen. Phone calls from their debtors asking me for assistance in collecting a debt. My response has evolved from passing on the phone message to now me stating, “Look, you’ve seen their credit report, you knew what their salary was, and you chose to give them credit anyway. Seems to me that you’re having to lie in the bed you made.”

This is kind of a touchy subject with me, because I am one of those po’ folks who should not be given credit. And to make matters worse, I recently lost my job. Sweet, huh? In my case, I can’t actually blame the banks, because unlike some of the uneducated Mexicans and whatnot, I was fully aware of what I was doing, and the consequences of my actions. But yeah, I guess a lot of people can blame the banks - immigrants, the terminally poor… why get their hopes up with a mortgage, only to foreclose on their house in a couple of years. Better just to turn them away, no?

With Canadian book retailers not dropping their prices to reflect the higher Canadian dollar (yesterday it was $1.04US), my impromptu trip south of the border is fortuitous indeed. My strong dollar will allow me to pick up a stack of titles which back at home would cost me more than 40% more.

And an editorial in Today’s Star (of all places) is right here with me:

In a bid to keep consumer anger from ricocheting onto the government, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty summoned the Retail Council of Canada to Ottawa to stress he wanted to see prices reduced to reflect the soaring dollar. What Flaherty got in response was a long list of excuses why Canadian prices must be higher than in the U.S. After failing to get any movement from retailers, the only thing Flaherty could tell buyers was “to shop around and look for discounts. It’s important for people to realize there is power to shopping around.”

As gratuitous as that advice might sound, it contains much truth. It is consumers who determine which businesses prosper and which ones fail. It was shoppers who forced Eaton’s to close its doors for good. And just yesterday, Sears Canada Inc., one of the country’s largest retailers, blamed cross-border shopping for part of a 2.9 per cent drop in sales in its last quarter, which ended Sept. 29.

Consumers don’t need Flaherty to tell them they can often get American prices on the Internet, or by driving to Buffalo. And where price discrepancies are big enough, that is what they will do.

As an aside, I’m surprised that the Star is touting the market-driven economy. It’s not like them to support the consumer in his choices. Oh well, maybe it’s a guest editor.

It’s Thanksgiving in Canada (Hey, we killed Indians, too, dammit, and we want our turkey day! Why should those pesky Yanks have all the fun?), so I thought it might be nice to do a quick roundup of things we should be thankful for.

The Canadian dollar closed at $1.02 US on Friday. It’s been 33 years since we reached parity or above - I wasn’t even born the last time!

The Canadian jobless rate is at a 33-year low low of 5.9%.

The surge is working, whether Pelosi & Co. like it or not.

The so-called surge has emboldened Iraqis, who now are showing unprecedented cooperation with American troops in an effort to rid their neighborhoods of dangerous madmen.

The US economy added 110,000 more jobs in September, after adding 89,000 in August. Damn that George Bush - he keeps pulling the rug out under the naysayers!

“It certainly doesn’t look like an economy that’s losing momentum,” said John Ryding, chief U.S. economist at Bear Stearns Cos. in New York.

So while I might be a Negative Nancy much of the time on this blog, I thought today was a good chance to point out a few things that are benefiting us. Things we should be thankful for. Feel free to add more in the comments.